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Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
Published on: November 21, 2013
Specific formation of beads-on-a-chain structures on giant DNA using a designed polyamine derivative
Ning Chen1, Anatoly A Zinchenko, Shizuaki Murata
1Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8601 Japan.
Abstract:
Fluorescence microscopy was used to study the folding transition of giant DNAs, T4 DNA (ca. 166 kbp), and lambda DNA (ca. 48 kbp), which proceeds through intermediates with intramolecular segregation induced by pteridine-polyamine conjugates, i.e., 2-amino-6,7-dimethyl-4-(4,9,13-triazatridecylamino)pteridine and -4-(3-(aminopropyl)amino)pteridine. According to the results of DNA denaturation, UV and fluorescent spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopic observations, it became clear that DNA folding induced by the polyamine derivative is not a continuous shrinking process but a combination of discontinuous processes.
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